Floating Bones
PUBLISHED June 23rd, 2014 05:42 am | UPDATED May 9th, 2018 03:13 am
Director: Elina Lim
Playwrights:
Float House 1001 by Han Lao Da
Dragon Bone by Quah Sy Ren
Translator: Jeremy Tiang
Cast: Lim Kay Siu, Bridget Lachica, Zachary Ibrahim, Bevin Ng, Elizabeth Sergeant Tan
Floating Bones consists of two one-act plays: Floathouse 1001 by Cultural Medallion winner Han Lao Da, and Dragon Bone by Quah Sy Ren. These Chinese-language plays are accessible to English-speaking audiences for the first time thanks to award-winning translator Jeremy Tiang, in a production directed by Elina Lim (Bedok Reservoir).
Floathouse 1001 offers a glimpse of a dystopian future – a country finds it has no land for its surplus population, and chooses to place them in pods that are set adrift at sea. When the inhabitants of each pod die, it simply sinks to the ocean floor. Trapped in this enclosed space, three people are driven half-mad – but what happens when the inhabitants of Floathouse 1001 decide to rebel?
Dragon Bone is a dream play, a collage of memories and impressions. A schoolboy attends his mother’s funeral; a refugee from a nameless land discovers that her lover is not who he seems; a train passenger finds himself attracted to the beautiful woman seated next to him – but where are all these cockroaches coming from? As we journey through these fragmentary images, we are forced to ask whether we can trust the evidence of our senses and who, ultimately, we owe our loyalty to.
Floathouse 1001 was staged at Jubilee Hall in 1995, and Dragon Bone (as Boner) by Drama Box in 2002. As there have been no significant productions of either piece in over a decade, this is a much anticipated return to the Singaporean stage of two important plays, as well as their debut in English translation.
For more information and ticket sales, click [here](http://theartshouse.com.sg/Programmes/EventPage.aspx?EventID=3647).
